The #1 most effective way to save money and eat healthy

Happy New Year!

If you are like half of all Americans, you probably made a 2024 New Years Resolution to

1) spend less money

and

2) get healthy by exercising more and eating better

https://www.statista.com/chart/29019/most-common-new-years-resolutions-us/

In my 16 years as a dietitian, I've learned that the #1 most effective goal you can make to save money and eat better is to:

Meal plan

Kinda boring huh?

If you.....

Plan 5-7 days worth of meals (using some tips from a dietitian)

Only buy the foods you need to make those meals

Cook the meals you planned (don't go out to eat)

You will eat healthy and save money.

But if you......

Plan meals

buy ice cream and soda in addition to what you need at the store

go out to eat instead of cooking what's on your meal plan

You won't save money or eat well

The trick is to have self control at the following 2 points in time:

#1 at the store (when you don't waste money on food you don't need)

and

#2 at home (when you actually cook what you planned to cook, and prepare lunches/snacks to take to work so you aren't tempted to eat out)

Easier said than done right?

The key to successful meal planning is to have a Registered Dietitian help you.

If you are interested in meal planning ask your Family Advocate to schedule a free visit with the DDI Vantage Registered Dietitian.

You can also Subscribe to this blog (hover on the word "blog" at the top of the page) to get an email every time I post a blog about meal planning. I plan to post about meal planning every Tuesday for the next 4 weeks in January 2024.

Happy New Year!

PS

Here's my meal plan for the week.

Saturday: taco soup for lunch, early new years party snacks for dinner

Sunday: Big green salad with apples, pecans, sweet potatoes and homemade croutons

Monday: cheese fondue with apple, mushroom, broccoli and whole wheat bread dippers

Tuesday: elk stew + homemade whole wheat cornbread + orange slices

Wednesday: spaghetti squash topped with ground elk goulash + orange slices

Thursday: broccoli + walnut stir fry over brown rice + pineapple

Friday: meal plan grocery shop

I'll go through it piece by piece over the next 4 weeks to show you everything I think about when planning a menu so that I'll actually cook what's on it.

5 Easy ways to limit your sugar intake this holiday

When the weather turns chilly, I crave a hot cup of coco and warm oatmeal cookies.

And my career as a dietitian kind of ruins the fun of having coco and cookies.

Because I'm a dietitian, I know that a cup of coco has 23 grams of sugar.

Because I'm a dietitian, I also know my family's sugar limits:

25 grams per day for kids over 2

25 grams for women

36 grams for men

I think these numbers are especially important for kids.

So do I still have coco and cookies?

Yes of course!

But in the day to day, I tend to look for healthier options.

Extra sugar causes cavities, weight gain and puts stress on your body.

This is especially true around the holidays when it seems that candy and treats are EVERYWHERE!

Here are 5 low sugar swaps I make around the holidays:

#1 Vanilla Milk instead of hot coco

Vanilla milk has 0 grams of added sugar

Coco has 23 grams of added sugar

I've been serving my kids Vanilla milk instead of hot coco since they were toddlers. So it's the norm at our house. If you've got little ones, get them hooked on vanilla milk instead of hot coco.

Recipe: https://www.ddinutrition.com/recipes-2/vanilla-milk

#2 Banana oat cookies instead of little debbie oatmeal cookies

Banana Oatmeal Cookies = 7 grams added sugar for 3 cookies

Little debbie oatmeal cream pie = 27grams sugar

I've been making these cookies since my kids were toddlers. Becuase I've made them regularly since they were very young, they love them. Usually they will eat a whole batch in one day.

If you give these to an older kid who's only had regular cookies, she probably won't like them. But if you are reading this blog, you have kids younger than 3! So get your kids hooked on these healthy cookies today!

Recipe: https://www.ddinutrition.com/recipes-2/peanut-butter-banana-cookies

#3 Apple Sauce instead of Maple Syrup

1 Tabelspoon Maple Syrup = 13 grams added sugar! (this is 1/2 of your day's limit)

1/2 cup unsweetened Applesauce = 0 grams added sugar

Image from wix.com

I love to make a good hot breakfast on cold winter mornings. When my kids were younger, I never bought syrup. Maple syrup is essentially like pouring sugar onto your pancakes.

Instead, I always had my kids put unsweetened applesauce on their pancakes. I would warm it up in a pot with cinnamon and nutmeg for added flavor.

Now that they are older and have been exposed to maple syrup, I will buy it. But we still usually have low sugar fruit preserves, apple butter or frozen berries on pancakes.

If you are reading this blog, you have kids younger than 3! Get them hooked on applesauce on top of their pancakes instead of sugar syrup!

#4 Reduce the sugar in your baked goods

image from recipes.net

Everytime you reduce sugar in a recipe, you reduce the number of grams you will eat! Most recipes can be reduced by 1/4 cup. If you start to eat sugar less often, you will not need as much to feel satisfied.

I often reduce the amount of sugar called for by 1/2 and still end up with a good cookie.

If a recipe for a dozen cookies calls for 1 cup of sugar, each cookie will have 8 grams of sugar. If you only use 1/2 cup of sugar, each cookie will have 4 grams of sugar.

That really adds up if you eat more than one cookie!

Experiment with your cookie recipes. Start by reducing the sugar by 1/4, then slowly work your way up.

#5 Avoid Sugar Sweetened Beverages

water = 0 grams added sugar (plus it's free)

1 cup egg nog = 20 grams added sugar

1 can sprite = 33 grams added sugar

image from https://www.licious.in/blog/recipe/non-alcoholic-eggnog-recipe

The #1 easiest way to avoid extra sugar is to avoid sugar sweetened drinks. Things like egg nog and cranberry holiday 7up are fun, but they should be saved for the occasional treat.

Make a habit of drinking water throughout the day and help your kids get in this habit as well.

If you love egg nog or other holiday drinks, save them for a special occasion, and limit your intake to 1 cup!

Why it's OK to let your child love dinner rolls

My face burned with embarrassment as I watched my 3 year old sneak her little hand over to steal her sister's dinner roll. She'd already finished the other 3 rolls on her plate while leaving the turkey and veggies untouched.

Thoughts of failure flooded my mind: "what kind of mom lets her kid gorge on rolls at Thanksgiving while leaving meat and vegetables untouched?"

What will everyone think? Should I force her to at least take a bite of her vegetables?

Would your kids also only eat the rolls pictured in this delicious meal?

Then I remembered my secret "calm down" weapon: The Division of Responsibility.

The Division of Responsibility

In my training as a Registered Dietitian, I learned a method for feeding children called "The Division of Responsibility."

The idea is that parents provide kids with healthy options and let kids choose how much (or whether) to eat. Kids eat as much as they want, or as little as they want, and parents DO NOT force them to eat (or not eat) in any way.

Good parenting around food: don't force your child to eat more (or less!)

The "Division of Responsibility" was easy with my first daughter:

We gave her food.

She ate it.

the end.

It was harder with my second child:

We gave her food

She threw it at us

She asked for bread

Frustrating. Even with my Dietitian training, her eating habits made me anxious: especially at Thanksgiving, when (I felt like) all eyes were on me.

Nutrition in Dinner Rolls

I decided to research the nutrition in rolls to ease my worries. This table shows what I found (the percentages are the percent of the daily need your child will get from that food). Nutrition info obtained from the USDA nutrition calculator.

	TURKEY, (size of 1 hot dog)	ROLL (1 large dinner roll)	SWEET POTATO (1/4 cup)	GREEN BEAN (1/4 cup)	POTATO (1/4 cup mashed)
PROTEIN	64%	75%	5%	0%	1%
IRON	2%	40%	4%	2%	0%
ZINC	16%	0	5%	2%	0%
VITAMIN C	0%	0%	65%	7%	33%

Are you as surprised as I am to see that a regular-sized dinner roll has more protein and iron than a 1.5 oz slice of turkey (1.5 oz is the size of a hot dog). Please note that a roll is bigger than a small piece of turkey, so weight for weight, the turkey probably has more protein than the roll.

But my daughter will eat 10 rolls. I'm lucky if she'll eat 2 bites of turkey.

My point? It's not the end of the world if your child loves bread. You can trust your child to eat what she needs for healthy growth.

Offer healthy foods, and your child will pick and choose from what is available to get the nutrition she needs. Thanks to enrichment and fortification (the adding of nutrients to foods), it's okay if she mostly chooses bread.

Can you live on bread alone? Of course not. We need a variety from every food group to stay healthy. But my main message is this: bread is not the enemy. AND....it's okay to let your child decide what to eat, especially at holiday meals when you feel like everyone is watching. Just don't let them steal anyone's dinner roll; that's just plain mean!

Are you interested in learning more about the division of responsibility?

Click here to read more. Then, ask your Family Advocate to schedule a home visit with our Registered Dietitian. She can meet with you one-on-one to discuss your child's eating and things you can do to make mealtime joyful.

Want to read another great article on how to deal with picky eaters at holiday meals? Read this post: https://www.realmomnutrition.com/picky-eaters-at-holidays/

P.S. Interested in what our dietitian is cooking for thanksgiving dinner?

My family is doing most of the cooking, but I'm bringing a few interesting things to share:

Wild Rice Stuffing (gluten free + vegan)

https://www.eatingbirdfood.com/wild-rice-stuffing/

NO-PIE pumpkin pie (gluten free)

https://food52.com/recipes/32181-pumpkin-pudding-a-k-a-no-pie-pumpkin-pie

I make this about once a week for my kids for after school snack. It's a little healthier than pie because....it has no crust! I cut the sugar in half and my kids devour the entire thing in 1 sitting.